Nokia Sets GPRS, PDA, CDMA 1x Phones

Nokia will launch multiple new wireless-handset technologies for the first time in the United States in 2002, including its first Symbian-OS PDA-phone, CDMA 1x phone, GSM/GPRS phone, and hybrid GSM/TDMA phone.

The company's first GSM/EDGE phone will probably be available late in 2002 or early 2003 for U.S. carriers, a spokesman said. The second half will also see a dual-band 850/1900MHz GSM phone that lacks an analog cellular mode.

Also in the works: First-quarter availability of the 6360 trimode TDMA phone and Nokia's first GSM/GPRS phone, the 8390, due by the end of 2001.

Details of only the 9290 PDA phone, the 6360 trimode and the 8390 GSM phone were available.

The 9290 PDA phone, an 8.6-ounce GSM 1900MHz model, is expected to ship in the spring to carriers at an expected end-user price of around $799. From the outside, it looks like a traditional phone with dialing keypad and display, but the device folds open to reveal a QWERTY keyboard and widescreen active-matrix color LCD display. It uses 9.6/14.4kbps circuit-switched data technology to access the Web, send and receive email with attachments, and send and receive faxes.

Using the Symbian OS, said to be more power- and memory-efficient than Microsoft's Pocket PC platform, the device opens and edits Microsoft Word and Excel documents. It also opens but doesn't edit PowerPoint files.

Other features include HTML and WAP browsers, access to POP3 and IMAP4 e-mail accounts, two-way SMS, and PIM applications that synchronize with Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes.

The supplied lithium battery delivers up to 10 hours of talk time or nine days of standby. With the phone off, the PDA can operate for up to 16 days.

Nokia will market the device to carriers, value-added resellers, computer retailers, and systems integrators that create solutions for vertical markets.

The company's first U.S. GPRS phone, the 8390, is a single-band GSM 1900MHz phone with a download datarate up to 40.2kbps and upload rate of up to 13.7kbps. The 2.9-ounce model is due this month with internal antenna and internal vibrating alert at possible end-user prices ranging from $150 to $250. The 8390's supplied lithium battery delivers up to four hours of talk time or up to 16 days of standby.

It also features voice dialing for up to 10 numbers, voice commands for up to eight functions, voice recorder, picture messaging to other GSM phones, and contact and calendar functions synchronizable with desktop PIMs.

The TDMA trimode 6360, which will replace the 6160 in the first quarter, is positioned as a midlevel business phone likely retailing for about $100 to $125. It comes in silver or jet black.